Youth was ‘shocked and crying’ after friend stabbed boy to death, court hears

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A youth told police he “went mad” at his friend after witnessing him stabbing another teenager in the heart – and cried when he found out the victim had died, a court has heard.

The boy, 15, is on trial at Coventry Crown Court alongside his friend, also 15, with both accused of murdering Muhammad Hassam Ali, known as Ali, in Birmingham on January 20.

Ali, 17, died in hospital hours after he and his friend were allegedly followed through the city centre by two males they did not know before he was stabbed in the chest as they sat in Victoria Square.

A jury of six men and six women were told that two youths, one of them wearing gloves and both with their hoods up and Covid-style blue masks on, approached Ali and his friend “out of nowhere” and started asking them if they knew who had “jumped a mate” of theirs a week before, and where they came from.

After a conversation lasting about four minutes, Ali allegedly told them: “Bro, I don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re pissing me off”, which prompted one of the youths to pull out a large knife and stab him in the chest before they both fled the scene.

While the youth accused of carrying out the fatal stabbing is said to have given “no comment” interviews to police after he was arrested, his co-accused, who was standing close by when the attack happened, told officers he had no idea his friend was carrying a knife and had only gone along to support him in case he got “battered”.

He told officers they had gone into the city centre to go to the Burger and Sauce restaurant for food, but while they were on their way there, the other defendant told him he had seen people that had bullied him and had also allegedly chased his cousin and his friend with a knife.

He said his friend wanted to follow them and a confrontation happened at Victoria Square.

When asked by police to explain what happened, he told them: “He wasn’t listening to me when I said to come back and leave them.

“When he approached them he’s speaking to them, they were trying to violate him and me, I was there but I wasn’t involved and I wasn’t really speaking, it was just my mate and them two.

“They were speaking about how them two have problems with each other. At this point I wasn’t involved, I was just standing there in case something happened to my mate.

“He must have said something about my mate’s mum and he gets annoyed when anyone speaks about his mum and he took out his knife and put it in the lad’s chest.

“I didn’t know if I should help or run away. I felt like I was gonna pass out, I hadn’t done anything to get involved in it, I just see [Ali] holding his chest with fear in his face.

“I hear the guy saying to me ‘come, run, I’ve just stabbed him’.

“I start to run because I didn’t want to get done for it. I didn’t want anything to happen to [my friend] but I never knew he had a knife on him at that point.”

He described how he was mad at his friend for stabbing Ali, who he said he did not know and had never seen before the incident, adding: “I have never wished to kill anyone in my life, what he has done at that point, I was mad at him the whole time.

“He has annoyed me, innit. I went mad.

“I was going mad at him, he was just taking it. I know he’s in the wrong, he knows he is in the wrong.

“I don’t carry knives. I don’t like knives.”

When asked what comment was made about his co-defendant’s mother that prompted the stabbing, he said he could not remember but it was not his place to speak about it.

He told officers investigating Ali’s murder that he only found out the victim had died when he searched Google for news of the incident.

He added: “I was shocked, I was crying and everything. I was going to speak to my mum about it, but I couldn’t say anything, it was just mad.

“I didn’t tell anyone at school, they were just saying I looked pale.”

Neither of the defendants, who deny murder and possession of a knife, or Ali’s friend, can be named because of a court order due to their age.

The trial continues.